Microsoft said Wednesday that it prematurely put up a pre-order Web page on MicrosoftStore.com for the Nokia Lumia 1520 smartphone but took it down about 12 hours later.

However, any pre-orders submitted for the Windows Phone 8 smartphone while the page was up will be honored upon release of the smartphone, as will orders for an accompanying flip cover accessory, Microsoft said in a statement emailed to Computerworld.

Microsoft put up a product test page for the 1520 "prematurely" Tuesday night; it was removed Wednesday morning, the statement said.

The page, captured in a screen shot by Computerworld, allowed visitors to place pre-orders for a 16GB version the 1520 (which features a 6-in. display) in one of four colors, at a cost of $199 with a two-year AT&T contract or $549 without a contract. The phone's release date was listed as Nov. 15.

On Wednesday, AT&T and Nokia separately confirmed that AT&T would carry the device, but they would not divulge details about pricing or availability. Microsoft said it had no further information on the accuracy of the price and availability information on the test page, although it's likely the price is accurate, given that Microsoft is honoring pre-orders.

If the $199 price indeed proves accurate, it would be in line with the cost of other top smartphones with large displays. The 1520 is seen as being positioned to compete with top smartphones from Samsung and others. It has a quad-core, 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, works on LTE networks and has a 1920x1080 display with resolution of 368 pixels per inch.

It also has a 20-megapixel rear camera and a large 3400 mAh battery. It's the first phone to be shipped with General Distribution Release 3 (GDRS3) of Windows Phone 8. GDRS3 has features such as driving mode for blocking calls and texts when the user is behind the wheel of a moving vehicle.